Video and interactive computer games now constitute an enormous industry that rivals television and film. Moreover, gaming is of growing importance in spheres beyond mere entertainment; games and gaming technology are increasingly applied to other ends, including for educational, political, and military purposes. Perhaps unsurprisingly, therefore, the cultural, social, and economic significance of games and gaming is now profound, and ripe for scholarly scrutiny and study.
As research continues to flourish as never before, this major new reference resource from Routledge’s Critical Concepts in Media and Cultural Studies series offers a multi-dimensional overview of games and gaming culture and brings together in four volumes the very best foundational and cutting-edge scholarship.
Edited by the field’s leading scholar, Mark J. P. Wolf, the collection encompasses the socio-cultural, political, and economic dimensions of gaming from a wide variety of perspectives. The materials gathered explore issues of game design and development, provide close analysis of games as cultural artefacts, and address issues of policy, such as those related to race, class, gender, and sexuality.
Video Games and Gaming Culture is supplemented by a comprehensive index and includes a full introduction, newly written by the editor.
VOLUME 1: FOUNDATIONS
Introduction
Part 1: Defining Video Game Studies
1. Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman, "Chapter 7: Defining Games", Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals, (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2003), pages 71-83.
2. Miguel Sicart, "Defining Game Mechanics", Game Studies: The International Journal of Computer Game Research, Vol. 8, Issue 2, December 2008, available at http://gamestudies.org/0802/articles/sicart.
3. Markuu Eskelinen, "The Gaming Situation", Game Studies: The International Journal of Computer Game Research, Volume 1, Issue 1, July 2001, available at http://www.gamestudies.org/0101/eskelinen/.
4. Gonzalo Frasca, "Simulation versus Narrative: Introduction to Ludology", in Mark J. P. Wolf and Bernard Perron (editors), The Video Game Theory Reader, (New York, New York: Routledge, 2003), pages 221-235.
5. Juul, Jesper, "Games Telling Stories? A Brief Note on Games and Narratives", in Joost Raessens and Jeffrey Goldstein (editors), Handbook for Video Game Studies, Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2005), pages 219-226.
6. Souvik Muhkerjee, "Chapter One - Introduction: Videogames and Storytelling", Video Games and Storytelling: Reading Games and Playing Books, (New York, New York: Palgrave McMillan, 2015), pages 1-20.
7. Henry Jenkins, "Games, The New Lively Art", in Joost Raessens and Jeffrey Goldstein (editors), Handbook for Video Game Studies, (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2005), pages 175-189.
8. Eric Zimmerman, "Manifesto for a Ludic Century", Kotaku.com, 2013, available at http://kotaku.com/manifesto-the-21st-century-will-be-defined-by-games-1275355204.
Part 2: Game Studies Classics
9. Johan Huizinga, "Chapter I: Nature and the Significance of Play as a Cultural Phenomenon", Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture, (Original Dutch edition, 1938; New York: Routledge, 1949), pages 1-27.
10. Johan Huizinga, "Chapter XII: The Play-Element in Contemporary Civilization", Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture, (Original Dutch edition, 1938; New York, New York: Routledge, 1949), pages 195-213.
11. Roger Caillois, "The Definition of Play" and "The Classification of Games", Man, Play and Games, (Librairie Gallimard, 1958), pp. 3-11; 11-37.
12. Clifford Geertz, "Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight", Daedalus, Vol. 101, No. 1, Myth, Symbol, and Culture (Winter, 1972), pages 1-37.
13. Brian Sutton-Smith, "Play and Ambiguity", The Ambiguity of Play, (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1997), pages 1-17.
14. F. Randall Farmer and Chip Morningstar, "The Lessons of Lucasfilm’s Habitat", in Michael Benedikt (editor), Cyberspace: First Steps, (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1990), pages 273-301.
15. Richard Bartle, "Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, Spades: Players Who Suit MUDs", Journal of MUD Research, Vol. 1 (1), 1996.
16. Don Carson, "Environmental Storytelling: Creating Immersive 3D Worlds Using Lessons Learned From the Theme Park Industry", Gamasutra, March 1, 2000, available at http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20000301/carson_pfv.htm.
Part 3: History and Historiographical Concerns
17. Steven D. Bristow, "The History of Video Games", IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics, February 1977, (1), pages 58–68.
18. Carl Therrien, "Video Games Caught Up in History: Accessibility, Teleological Distortion, and Other Methodological Issues", in Mark J. P. Wolf (editor), Before the Crash: Early Video Game History, (Detroit, Michigan: Wayne State University Press, 2012), pages 9-29.
19. Kevin Schut, "Strategic Simulations and Our Past: The Bias of Computer Games in the Presentation of History", Games and Culture, 2007, Vol. 2, No.3, pages 213-235.
20. David H. Ahl, "Mainframe Games and Simulations", in Mark J. P. Wolf (editor ), The Video Game Explosion: A History from PONG to PlayStation and Beyond, (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2007), pages 31-34.
21. Henry Lowood, "Video Games in Computer Space: The Complex History of Pong", IEEE Annals in the History of Computing, July-Sept. 2009, pages 5-19.
22. Mark J. P. Wolf, "BattleZone and the Origins of First-Person Shooting Games", in Gerald Voorhees, Joshua Call, and Katie Whitlock (editors), Guns, Grenades and Grunts: First Person Shooter Games, (New York, New York: Continuum, 2012), pages 25-40.
VOLUME 2: DESIGN AND THEORY
Part 4: Video Game Design and Formal Aspects
23. Greg Costikyan, "I Have No Words & I Must Design", Interactive Fantasy: The Journal of Role-Playing and Story-Making Systems, Issue #2, 1994.
24. Church, Doug, "Formal Abstract Design Tools", Game Developer magazine, August 1999.
25. Marc LeBlanc, "Tools for Creating Dramatic Game Dynamics", Game Developer’s Conference (GDC),
1999.
26. Robin Hunicke, Marc LeBlanc, and Robert Zubek, "MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research", 19th National Conference of Artificial Intelligence, San Jose, California, 2004.
27. Karen Collins, "An Introduction to the Participatory and Non‐Linear Aspects of Video Games Audio", in Stan Hawkins and John Richardson (editors), Essays on Sound and Vision, (Helsinki, Finland: Helsinki University Press, 2007), pages 263‐298.
28. Karen Collins, "In the Loop: Creativity and Constraint in 8-bit Video Game Audio", Twentieth-Century Music 4/2, 2008, (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2008), pages 209–227.
29. Ian Bogost and Nick Monfort, "Chapter 4: Pac-Man", Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer System, (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2009), pages 65-79.
30. Henry Jenkins, "Game Design as Narrative Architecture" in Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Pat Harrigan, editors, First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game, (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2004), pages 118-130.
31. Mark J. P. Wolf, "Theorizing Navigable Space in Video Games", in Stephan Günzel, Michael Liebe, and Dieter Mersch (editors), DIGAREC Keynote-Lectures 2009/10, (Potsdam, Germany: Potsdam University Press, 2011), pages 18-48.
32. Alexander R. Galloway, "Gamic Action, Four Moments", Gaming: Essays on Algorithmic Culture, (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006), pages 1-38.
33. Rune Klevjer, "In Defense of Cut-Scenes", in Frans Mäyrä (editor), Proceedings of Computer Games and Digital Cultures Conference, (Tampere, Finland: Tampere University Press, 2002), pages 191-202.
34. Juul, Jesper, "Fear of Failure? The Many Meanings of Difficulty in Video Games", in Bernard Perron and Mark J. P. Wolf (editors), The Video Game Theory Reader 2, (New York, New York: Routledge, 2008), pages 237-252.
Part 5: Video Game Theory, Methodology, and Analysis
35. Bernard DeKoven, "Changing the Game", The Well-Played Game (New York: Doubleday, 1978), pp. 39-59.
36. David Myers, "Computer Game Semiotics", Play & Culture, 4(4), 1991, pages 334-345.
37. Lars Konzack, "Computer Game Criticism: A Method for Computer Game Analysis", in Frans Mäyrä (editor), Proceedings of Computer Games and Digital Cultures Conference, (Tampere, Finland: Tampere University Press, 2002), pages 89-100.
38. Espen Aarseth, "Playing Research: Methodological Approaches to Game Analysis", Digital Art and Culture conference, Melbourne, Australia, May 19-23, 2003, and also published in Fine Art Forum, Volume 17, Issue 8, August 2003, and available at hypertext.rmit.edu.au/dac/papers/Aarseth.pdf.
39. Roberto Dillon, "Towards the Definition of a Framework and Grammar for Game Analysis and Design", International Journal of Computer and Information Technology, Volume 3, Issue 2, March 2014, pages 188-193.
40. David Myers, "Bombs, Barbarians, and Backstories: Meaning-making within Sid Meier’s Civilization", in Matteo Bittanti (editor), Ludologica. Videogames d’Autore: Civilization and its Discontents. Virtual History. Real Fantasies, (Milan, Italy: Edizioni Unicopli, Costa and Nolan, 2005), original version available at http://www.loyno.edu/%7Edmyers/F99%20classes/Myers_BombsBarbarians_DRAFT.rft.
41. Thomas H. Apperley, "Genre and Game Studies", Simulation Gaming, 2006, 37: 6.
42. Will Brooker, "Camera-Eye, CG-Eye: Videogames and the "Cinematic"", Cinema Journal, Vol. 48, No. 3 (Spring, 2009), pages 122-128.
43. Brett Camper, "Color-Cycled Space Fumes in the Pixel Particle Shockwave: The Technical Aesthetics of Defender and the Williams Arcade Platform, 1980–82", in Mark J. P. Wolf (editor), Before the Crash: Early Video Game History, (Detroit, Michigan: Wayne State University Press, 2012), pages 168-188.
44. Ian Bogost, "Chapter 1: Procedural Rhetoric", Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Video Games, Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2010), pages 1-64.
VOLUME 3: PLAY AND PLAYERS
Part 6: Embodiment and Identity
45. Torben Grodal, "Stories for Eye, Ear, and Muscles: Video Games, Media, and Embodied Experiences" in Mark J. P. Wolf and Bernard Perron (editors), The Video Game Theory Reader, (New York, New York: Routledge, 2003), pages 129-155.
46. Andreas Gregersen and Torben Grodal, "Embodiment and Interface", in Bernard Perron and Mark J. P. Wolf (editors), The Video Game Theory Reader 2, (New York, New York: Routledge, 2008), pages 65-83.
47. James Newman, "The Myth of the Ergodic Videogame: Some Thoughts on Player-character Relationships in Videogames", Game Studies: The International Journal of Computer Game Research, Volume 2, Issue 1, July 2002, available at http://www.gamestudies.org/0102/newman/.
48. Bob Rehak, "Playing at Being: Psychoanalysis and the Avatar", in Mark J. P. Wolf and Bernard Perron (editors), The Video Game Theory Reader, (New York, New York: Routledge, 2003), pages 103-127.
49. Helen W. Kennedy, "Lara Croft: Feminist Icon or Cyberbimbo?: On the Limits of Textual Analysis", Game Studies: The International Journal of Computer Game Research, Volume 2, Issue 2, December 2002, available at http://www.gamestudies.org/0202/kennedy/.
50. Jennifer Jenson and Suzanne de Castell, "Theorizing Gender and Digital Gameplay: Oversights, Accidents and Surprises", Eludamos: Journal for Computer Game Culture, 2008, 2 (1), pages 15-25.
51. Anna Everett, "Serious Play: Playing with Race in Contemporary Gaming Culture", in Joost Raessens and Jeffrey Goldstein (editors), Handbook for Video Game Studies, (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2005), pages 311-325.
52. Anna Everett and S. Craig Watkins, (2007), "The Power of Play: The Portrayal and Performance of Race in Video Games", in Katie Salen Tekinbas (editor), The Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games, and Learning, (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2007), pages 141-164.
53. Anna Everett, "Race", in Mark J. P. Wolf and Bernard Perron (editors), The Routledge Companion to Video Game Studies, (New York, New York: Routledge, 2014), pages 396-406.
Part 7: Play, Control, and The Magic Circle
54. T. L. Taylor, "The Assemblage of Play", Games and Culture, Vol. 4, No. 4, 2009, pages 331-339.
55. Bernard Perron, "Coming to Play at Frightening Yourself: Welcome to the World of Horror Games", Aesthetics of Play: A Conference on Computer Game Aesthetics, University of Bergen, Norway, 2005; available at http://www.aestheticsofplay.org/perron.php.
56. Espen Aarseth, "I Fought the Law: Transgressive Play and the Implied Player", Situated Play: Proceedings of DiGRA 2007 Conference, Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA), The University of Tokyo, Japan, 2007, pages 130-133, available at http://www.digra.org/dl/db/07313.03489.pdf.
57. Torben Grodal, "Video Games and the Pleasures of Control", in Dolf Zillmann and Peter Vorderer (editors), Media Entertainment: The Psychology of its Appeal, (Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers, 2000), pages 197-213.
58. Alexander R. Galloway, "Allegories of Control", Gaming: Essays on Algorithmic Culture, (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006), pages 85-106.
59. Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman, "Chapter 9: The Magic Circle", Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals, (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2003), pages 93-99.
60. Mia Consalvo, "There is No Magic Circle", Games and Culture, 2009, Volume 4, Number 4; 408-417.
61. Eric Zimmerman, "Jerked Around by the Magic Circle - Clearing the Air 10 Years Later", Gamasutra.com, 2012, available at http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/135063/jerked_around_by_the_magic_circle_.php.
62. Laura Ermi and Franz Mäyrä, "Fundamental Components of Gameplay Experience: Analysing Immersion", in Stephan Günzel, Michael Liebe, and Dieter Mersch (editors), DIGAREC Keynote-Lectures 2009/10, (Potsdam, Germany: Potsdam University Press, 2011), pages 88-113, available athttp://pub.ub.uni-potsdam.de/volltexte/2011/4983/ [urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-49831].
63. Piotr Kubiński, "Immersion vs. Emersive Effects in Videogames", in Dawn Stobbart and Monica Evans (editors), Engaging with Videogames: Play, Theory and Practice, (Oxford, England: Inter-Disciplinary Press, 2014), pages 133-14, [e-book].
Part 8: Threat, Aggression, and Violence
64. Julian Dibbell, "A Rape in Cyberspace: How an Evil Clown, a Haitian Trickster Spirit, Two Wizards, and a Cast of Dozens Turned a Database into a Society", The Village Voice, December 23, 1993, pages 36-42.
65. Gonzalo Frasca, "Ephemeral Games: Is It Barbaric to Design Videogames after Auschwitz?", Cybertext Yearbook 2000, University of Jyväskayla, pages 172-182.
66. Craig A. Anderson and Karen E. Dill, "Video Games and Aggressive Thoughts, Feelings, and Behavior in the Laboratory and in Life", Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, April 2000, Volume 78(4), pages 772-790.
67. Craig A. Anderson and Brad J. Bushman, "Effects of Violent Video Games on Aggressive Behavior, Aggressive Cognition, Aggressive Affect, Physiological Arousal, and Prosocial Behavior: A Meta-Analytic Review of the Scientific Literature", Psychological Science, September 2001, Volume 12, No. 5, pages 353-359.
68. Craig A. Anderson, Akiko Shibuya, Nobuko Ihori, Edward L. Swing, Brad J. Bushman, Akira Sakamoto, Hannah R. Rothstein, and Muniba Saleem, (2010), "Violent Video Game Effects on Aggression, Empathy, and Prosocial Behavior in Eastern and Western Countries: A Meta-Analytic Review", Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 136, No. 2, 2010, American Psychological Association, pages 151–173.
69. Bernard Perron, "Sign of a Threat: The Effects of Warning Systems in Survival Horror Games", COSIGN 2004 Proceedings, (Art Academy, University of Split (Croatia), 2004), pages 132-141.
70. Andrew K. Przybylski, Richard M. Ryan, and C. Scott Rigby, "The Motivating Role of Violence in Video Games", Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 35, No. 2, February 2009, pages 243-259.
VOLUME 4: CULTURAL CONTEXTS
Part 9: Video Games and Education
71. Mark Griffiths, "The Educational Benefits of Videogames", Education and Health, Vol. 20, No. 3, 2002, pages 47-51.
72. James Paul Gee, "What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning and Literacy", Computers in Entertainment (CIE) - Theoretical and Practical Computer Applications in Entertainment archive, Volume 1, Issue 1, October 2003.
73. Kurt Squire, "Video Games in Education", International Journal of Intelligent Simulations and Gaming, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2003, pages 49–62.
74. Kurt Squire, "From Content to Context: Videogames as Designed Experience", Educational Researcher, Vol. 35, No. 8, (November 2006), pages 19-29.
75. Michele D. Dickey, "Game Design and Learning: A Conjectural Analysis of How Massively Multiple Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) Foster Intrinsic Motivation", Educational Technology Research and Development, Vol. 55, No. 3 (June 2007), pages 253-273.
76. David Williamson Shaffer, Kurt R. Squire, Richard Halverson, and James P. Gee, "Video Games and the Future of Learning", The Phi Delta Kappan, Vol. 87, No. 2, (October 2005), pages 104-111.
Part 10: Video Games and Culture
77. Adrienne Shaw, "What Is Video Game Culture? Cultural Studies and Game Studies", Games and Culture, 2010, Vol. 5, No. 4, pages 403-424, originally published on-line May 7, 2010.
78. Celia Pearce, "Game Culture From the Bottom Up", Games and Culture, Vol. 1, No.1, January 2006, pages 17-24.
79. Heikki Tyni and Olli Sotamaa, "Material Culture and Angry Birds", Proceedings of Nordic DiGRA 2014 Conference, Digital Games Research Association DiGRA, 2014.
80. Mary Fuller and Henry Jenkins, "Nintendo® and New World Travel Writing: A Dialogue", in Steven G. Jones (editor), Cybersociety: Computer-Mediated Communication and Community, (Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications, 1995), pages 57-72.
81. Ted Friedman, "Civilization and its Discontents", in Greg M. Smith (editor), On a Silver Platter: CD-ROMs and the Promises of a New Technology, (New York: NYU Press, 1999), pages 132-150.
82. David Myers, "Social Play", Play Redux: The Form of Computer Games, (Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 2010), pages 116-130.
83. Mia Consalvo, "Chapter 4: Gaining Advantage: How Videogame Players Define and Negotiate Cheating", Cheating: Gaining Advantage in Videogames, (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2009), pages 83-105.
84. Gareth R. Schott and Kirsty R. Horrell, "Girl Gamers and their Relationship with the Gaming Culture",
Convergence, December 2000, Volume 6, Number 4, pages 36-53.
85. Mark J. P. Wolf, "Introduction" (excerpt), in Mark J. P. Wolf (editor), Video Games Around the World, (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2015), pages 1-12.
86. F. Ted Tschang, "Balancing the Tensions between Rationalization and Creativity in the Video Games Industry", Organization Science, Vol. 18, No. 6, Innovation at and across Multiple Levels of Analysis (November -December, 2007), pages 989-1005.
87. Mia Consalvo, "Convergence and Globalization in the Japanese Videogame Industry", Cinema Journal, Vol. 48, No. 3 (Spring, 2009), pages 135-141.
88. Simon Gottschalk, "Videology: Video-Games as Postmodern Sites/Sights of Ideological Reproduction", Symbolic Interaction, Vol. 18, No. 1 (Spring 1995), pages 1-18.
89. Trevor Elkington, "Too Many Cooks: Media Convergence and Self-Defeating Adaptations", in Bernard Perron and Mark J. P. Wolf (editors), The Video Game Theory Reader 2, (New York: Routledge, 2008), pages 213-235.
90. James Newman, Best Before: Videogames, Supersession and Obsolescence (excerpt), (New York and London: Routledge, 2012), pages 149-160.
